Some of Sheffield’s brightest students will take on Britain’s hardest quiz in an attempt to win University Challenge for the first time.
The University of Sheffield’s University Challenge team will take on Loughborough University in their First Round match on Monday 18 September.
The show will be available to watch back afterwards on BBC iPlayer.
This is the first time the university has made back-to-back appearances on the show since 2009, and the team are confident.
Team Captain, Mr Colclough said: “I think the team is quite well balanced. It’s got a blend of different styles of knowledge and different areas of knowledge.”
“In theory I’d like to think we could win it, but I anecdotally know that there’s other strong teams that are very competitive.”
“i’D LIKE TO think we could win iT”
The four-player team is comprised of Mr Colclough, Philosophy student Matthew Nail, History student Safiyyah Rujak and Joseph McGough, who studies History and Spanish.
The final member of the team is Isobel Cook- as the team’s reserve she won’t appear on the broadcast but was crucial during preparation.
Asked about how the team was preparing for competition, Mr Colclough said:
“We met twice a week to run through practice University Challenge questions. We had university challenge starter questions, sheets and sheets of them, and we would have our buzzers set up and we would just practice.”
The team’s first round match will be broadcast on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer, at 8:30pm on Monday, 18th September.
If they win, they will likely play their Second Round match in November or December.
Trials to join the team are advertised during the year and open to all, where applicants sit a written paper.
This is then marked and the best are put forward to represent the University.
Mr Colclough said:“When you next see the applications to trial to be on the team, join them or take part in them,
The importance is having a balanced team with varied knowledge, it’s not about having four of the brainiest people if they’ve got massive overlaps in knowledge- it’s not particularly useful for a team”.
“If you’re particularly strong in maths or the sciences, or conversely, the arts, don’t be worried that you don’t have that duality, apply.”
“Personally I’m quite anticipative to see how it will look on TV, I know the others are quite excited to be able to show how we got on. I think people will enjoy watching it.”
